Strange things seem to be happening around the UK government's grand G-cloud project to condense IT costs and build a competitive infrastructure for the future. The omens seem sound the promised savings would contribute nicely to the government's spending cuts over the next few years, and the scheme dovetails neatly with Prime Minister David Cameron's avowed intention to plant deep sustainable roots within the UK economy. Yet in other ways the fizz seems to have gone out of the project, following a series of setbacks which threaten to delav and water-down G-cloud's ambits. The change of government may be part of the problem, as the incoming coalition seems not as committed to the cloud concept as its Labour predecessor. Then came the spending review aimed at achieving 40 per cent cuts, but this would seem to favour G-cloud, given its promise to cut public sector IT costs by some 30 per cent. One problem was that the G-cloud plan as initially formulated did not yield jam soon enough for the Treasury the full 30 per cent savings would not come home until 2020 far too late to do much for the immediate budgetary crisis, or to assist the coalition at the next general election. This led the Treasury to urge the Cabinet Office, which runs the project, to come up with a way of bringing the savings forward, leading to a new option to maximise cost reductions within the next three years up until 2014, while minimising the investment needed during that period. The Cabinet Office reckoned that this seemingly short-term and politically motivated option would yield extra savings of £70m in the coming financial year, rising to £399m for 2012/13, and £430m for financial year ending April 2014. These are relatively modest amounts and raise the question whether it is worth compromising the strategy to achieve them.